Tag Archives: TV reviews

Readers of this site are aware of my great love for Breaking Bad (see here and here). Just about every like-minded man I know who saw the series found the story of Walter White, high school chemistry teacher turned drug king pin, to be as inspirational as I did. Weirdly inspirational, of course. But these are weird times. Walt’s story was not intended to be a glorification of crime (though, well, it does kind of turn out to be). It’s the story of a man becoming a man; becoming what he is. It’s the televisual, inspirational equivalent of Fight Club. Read more …

“Yes, he replied, “of ‘truths’ which send men frantic and blast their lives. I don’t care if the thing is, as they say, the very supreme essence of art. It’s a crime to have written it, and I for one shall never open its pages.”

— The Repairer of Reputations, Robert W. Chambers

True Detective is widely considered to be one of the best TV series ever broadcast. Read more …

Having followed Mad Men from the start, with initial enthusiasm[1] gradually tempered by the increasingly exposed triumphalist agenda,[2] I found the series finale, pumped (or pimped) by the network as “the end of an era,” Read more …

One of the oddities of the current scene is that only White Nationalists, or “race realists,” are allowed to mention the intelligence of the Jews. In fact, they seem to have a shameful obsession with it, especially the latter group, who seem to think it can provide evidence for another of their hobby-horses, the all-pervasive relevance of IQ and genetics. Read more …

“Somewhere along the line I am going to meet with an arm of this octopus, and when I do it will lead me to a head, and when I find that I shall cut it off.” — John Drake in “You Are Not in Any Trouble, Are You?” (1965)

I recently watched the 1960s English television series Danger Man (1960–1962, 30 mins.; 1964–1968, 1 hour) starring Patrick McGoohan. It was a popular spy show that made McGoohan a star and enabled him to produce his cult television series The Prisoner (UK, 1967–1968). Read more …

Last night I was so bored I actually turned on Fox News. I do this now and then, with the same sort of feeling I get when I pass a roadside accident and, against my better judgment, turn briefly to glimpse the carnage. It was around 10:30, so the execrable Sean Hannity was on. After a minute or so of the usual Obamacare coverage they went to a commercial. It was then that I received the revelation, and my life changed forever.

Benefits Street is a fly-on-the-wall documentary about the day-to-day lives of the residents of James Turner Street in Birmingham, England, 95% of whom are unemployed and claiming benefits. It is a compelling snapshot of the underclass that is growing in every city in the Western world. Read more …